About Us

Action for Cyprus (AFC )is a non-partisan organisation, set up in 1990, to widely publicise and right the injustice of the Turkish invasion and occupation of nearly 40% of Cyprus in 1974 which killed and maimed thousands of Cypriots and created some 200,000 Cypriot refugees and has prevented twice as many Cypriots living abroad from returning to their homes and enjoying their properties in the north of Cyprus.

A group of like-minded persons based in the Midlands, most of them displaced by the invasion of Cyprus, sought support and received it from some 25000 fellow compatriots living in the Midlands.

At a general meeting of the membership, numbering some 5000, a committee of 12 dedicated persons was elected to represent the wishes and aspirations of the general membership and the views of the majority of Cypriots, Greek and Turkish, living in England.

Principles and Values of AFC

AFC support the reunification of Cyprus and believe that all Cypriots should enjoy the same democratic freedoms and human rights as other European nationals and as provided for by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

Such actions by the Turkish authorities or other parties seeking to restrict the rights of individuals to move freely within Cyprus and to enjoy their properties and democratic freedoms constitute a violation of our basic human rights.

The Titina Loizidou test case, at the European Court of Human Rights, is both a vindication of the cries for justice by thousands of other displaced persons and a reminder to those negotiating the future of Cyprus that they should not compromise peoples’ basic human rights.

Any compromise of human rights, for the sake of a constitutional solution that may be acceptable in the short term, undermines the very basis of a democratic state, which has to protect the interests and rights of its entire people and particularly that of minority groups. Any proposed or imposed constitution or plan that compromises human rights undermines the basic fabric of a democratic state and its institutions and as such it is unjust and non-viable. The only sure outcome of such a constitution, plan or solution, is its long-term failure.

Action for Cyprus believes that any proposed plan put forward by the international community and or the UN should be underpinned by the ideals, values and principles of the European Union and the EU Charter of Human Rights and resolutions of the United Nations.

We believe that the aspirations of the majority of Cypriots is to live in a reunited Cyprus, in peace and prosperity, where all its citizens enjoy the same human rights as other European citizens and have one recognised nationality. Any proposed solution must learn from the mistakes of the past and avoid a situation, which perpetuates the distinction between Greek and Turkish Cypriots and provides the means for one side to frustrate the workings of government purely on ethnic lines. The Cypriots should strive, and be encouraged /guided by UN proposals towards achieving a common identity and learn to live as an independent sovereign state, with a single identity, one nationality, whose future is not dependent on Greece or Turkey but guaranteed by it membership of the EU and the UN.